By now, most businesses realize the tremendous marketing potential that lies within social media. We are often pointed in the direction of popular platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but the social realm has so much more to offer us marketers. While there are numerous options out there, many of which do the same thing more or less,

Yammer is one that takes a unique approach to social networking. Let’s take an in depth look at Yammer and what makes it such a good communication tool businesses of all sizes.

What is Yammer?

Originally launched in 2008, Yammer is a social network geared for enterprise use. It is similar to mainstream social networking options, yet different in how it focuses solely on helping marketers meet their business objectives. Just like with other sites, Yammer allows users to create profiles complete with relevant content such as a photo or logo, contact information, experience, and more. What makes it different, however, is a centralized aspect that keeps your communications private and secure. The platform also offers a variety of features and options that businesses do not have access to on other social networks.

Business users can take advantage of Yammer in two ways: by singing up for a free membership or investing a premium membership for $5 per month. With a free membership, you get basic features such as access to privacy and security settings, status updates, the ability to share files, and unlimited space for storing your files on the platform. A premium membership gets you advanced management and security capabilities, the ability to send broadcast messages, and keyword monitoring among other features. Premium members also receive integration with popular Microsoft products ActiveDirectory and SharePoint. As you can see Yammer’s subscription model suits businesses with basic requirements, as well as those with more demanding needs.

Yammer Integration

Another thing that makes Yammer a worthwhile venture is its API. The Yammer API enables easy and seamless integration with your existing applications, essentially providing a direct line to the platform from your infrastructure. The API also allows you to create your own applications, apps other business professionals can use on their desktops and mobile devices. The main perk here is strengthening your brand by getting people on the network to use your apps.

Whether it’s plugging in your CRM or engaging contacts with your very own apps, API integration with Yammer extends on the platform’s core functionality and makes what was already good even better.

Conclusion

According to Yammer, its social networking service is utilized by more than a 100,000 companies around the world. Although this number pales in comparison to that of Facebook, Twitter, or even LinkedIn, it is still pretty impressive. And while Yammer may not be a suitable replacement for your existing social marketing options, it is a fine tool for businesses that need a dependable way to communicate and network with their target market online.

Sharing is Very Soshal:

Related

7 Comments

I subscribe to this blog and am studying social media with @dr4ward at @NewhouseSU. It is always interesting to learn about social networking sites other than Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, which are clearly the frontrunners. Just because they are the most utilized, it doesn’t mean that other platforms, such as Yammer are not valuable. The ability to privately communicate within an organization is something that Facebook and Twitter are not as invested in. Our class hash-tag is #NewhouseSM4.

Daniel Chang
October 12, 2011 at 3:00 pm

Yammer is not the only social tool in the market that keeps your internal business communications private and secure, there are also Jive, Salesforce Chatter and Google+ (via circles) to name a few.

Emily
October 14, 2011 at 3:06 am

Hi. Very helpful information.Thinking about implementing in SME. Advice appreciated!